Listening to Pretty Boy blasting out of loud speakers in Wythenshawe Park, I wandered where the park’s beginnings began… and then I forgot the Noel Gallagher gig but was reminded of it whilst passing Shena Simon Campus in Manchester.

Lady Simon of Wythenshawe sounds an odd name. Yet, many Mancunians will have heard the name Shena Simon. Middle name Dorothy, perhaps. Her life spanned 21st of October 1883 through to 17th July 1972. To most Mancunians, and students of Manchester College, Shena Simon was just a campus of building name. A few may have known her as a politician, feminist, educationalist and writer. Born of London’s Croydon, Sheila moved to Manchester by the 1920s, following marriage to Ernest Simon, 1st Baron Simon of Wythenshawe.

Here Sheila Simon boycotted functions at the St Mary’s Hospital for Women because they had no female board member. From that, she became heavily involved in Manchester Council and social provision. In 1926, Wythenshawe Park was donated to the people, by herself and her husband. Over the years the Simon family pushed for accessible education and her family even have links to the funding of Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Lovell Telescope.

Gustav Heinrich Victor Amandus Simon, a German engineer, founded Henry Simon Ltd and Simon-Carves Ltd in 1878. His son Ernest Emil Darwin Simon was born a year later. By 1947, his son was elevated to Baron Simon of Wythenshawe, of Didsbury in the City of Manchester. This peerage allowed steerage to join the BBC Board of Governors. His son Roger, the 2nd Baron Simon of Wythenshawe was a left wing journalist who championed Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. His other son Brian became a teacher and professor, after dabbling with Communism and soldiering.

Roger’s child, Matilda Simon, 3rd Baroness Simon of Wythenshawe was born as Matthew and underwent transgender surgery to become first openly transgender peer of the realm of the U.K. In recent years, as a former Green Party, the 3rd Baroness Simon has been involved with tree plantation in Marple Bridge. The name Shena Simon may not be the most well-known but just reading a few bits and bobs has led me to learn that Ernest’s older half-brother Ingo Heinrich Julius William Gustav Simon knows how to fill a birth certificate and that his expansive archery collection made it to Manchester Museum. So, next time I pass Shena Simon college I will be reminded of its links to Wythenshawe Park, Alan Turing sat behind it, and a diverse family lineage stretching from former-Prussia to Marple Bridge.